ETS honours Global Handwashing Day by announcing winners of its Cartoon Contest

Young graphic designers from around the world have scooped the top prizes in this year's European Tissue Symposium Cartoon Contest.

The winners' announcement coincides with the release of the updated consensus statement and the celebration of the Global Handwashing Day, which took place recently.

The winning graphic designs will be exhibited in Bologna and showcased on a dedicated Facebook page. In the months ahead they will also feature as part of a wider social media roll-out stressing the importance of good hand hygiene in preventing the spread of infection and promoting good health.

First prize in the ETS Academy Cartoon Contest is awarded to Elisa Canaglia from Italy for her design 'Our Future'. Commenting on her win Elisa, who has already successfully entered the contest on previous occasions, says:

"This time, I wanted to approach the theme in a totally new way. I am passionate about reinventing the way we look at things and am delighted to receive this award. Hand hygiene is such a key part of our daily life, that's why I depicted its importance in a childhood memory almost everyone can relate to."

The International Cartoon Contest Winner is Rahim Biyarash from Iran for his design 'Soap - paper'. In presenting the award the chairman of the judges, Christian Ghisellini, said: "Rahim charmed us with his extreme synthetical design and ironic approach. He has captured the concept and the theme perfectly."

Each of the first prize winners will receive 1000 Euros.

Three specialist ETS prizes were also awarded to Erica Dalle Luche for 'Just relax with tissue'; Martina Tonello for 'Soapy Pirates' and Chiara Martinelli for 'Racoon'.

It is fitting that the awards were announced on Global Handwashing Day, an important feature on the annual calendar of governments, schools, NGOs, private companies and scientific organisations around the world promoting good hygiene and health. On this day, people are encouraged to hold events and celebrations that support a global culture of handwashing. Activities are particularly focused on children who can be powerful agents of change in their communities.

Handwashing with soap could save more lives than any other medical intervention and is critical to meeting the Millenium Development Goal of reducing deaths among children under five by two-thirds by 2015.

Roberto Berardi, Chairman of the European Tissue Symposium, comments on the happy coincidence:

"ETS is highly committed to communicating on the importance of hand hygiene. That's why we're very happy to support young graphic talent helping us to visualise this noble goal for a broader audience on this dedicated hand hygiene day. We've had so many excellent entries that we'll be posting most of these on our dedicated Facebook page and website. We'll also repurpose them at events later on."

The importance of handwashing and drying is further underlined in the recent consensus statement from six eminent European microbiologists and hospital hygienists. It concludes that hand-drying completes the handwashing process by reducing the transmission of microbes and that a system should be chosen that takes into account the risk of contaminating hands, other individuals or the environment. This has significant implications for the spread of infection in public washrooms and healthcare environments.